Ripping and weaving

It's been a while again, but I've been busy. This loom has taken over my crafting time big time. I'm still knitting in the evenings, but Ribena is no more. Having done the front and back and more than half of both sleeves, I felt disappointed with the look of it. My knitting was not very even in places, and the leftmost stitch in the 2x2 ribs was a lot bigger than the righthand stitch. I know this is common, but it didn't look nice. There is a fix involving wrapping the yarn the other way round the needle when purling the first stitch after the knit stitch, and then knitting into the back of that stitch on the return row. I've used it successfully when cabling, but not on a ribbed section. The major revelation is that the yarn, once skeined and washed, is much softer and knits up really nicely. I'm now knitting Kearsarge from the book A Fine Fleece by Lisa Lloyd, which is a basketweave pattern for the front and back, and mistake rib for the sleeves. So far, I'm about a third of the way up the back and one sleeve.

This is the result of the first warp, it's a sampler of various things. I've tried stripes, leno and Brooks bouquet which are both lacy effects, also weft floats and warp floats. I used it as a practice piece, using oddments of 4 ply yarn hence the eclectic colours.


This is the next step. I bought the book by Betty Linn Davenport 'Hands on Rigid Heddle Weaving', and couldn't resist trying the colour and weave sampler in it. I used some Forsell Shamal 4 ply (80% acrylic, 20% wool) from the machine knitting stash and the result is lovely fabric with great drape. The patterning which is possible from different arrangements of two colours is astonishing, and even plain weave can look really complex.

I bought an extra set of heddle blocks and more heddles, along with some shorter shuttles. A 32" shuttle is a formidable thing to be waving around, and for narrower warps is over the top. Anyway, I decided I need a way to store them safely together, so I thought I'd weave some yardage to sew a bag. From my needlepoint stash, I have a lot of tapestry wools, and since I don't do needlepoint any more I figured that I could use some of it as warp, so that is what I did.
I used two threads of tapestry wool and then one of a double knit green wool repeated across the warp. The weft is all the same dk green wool. This time I used the Ashford 7.5 dpi heddle, which fits the Kromski Harp fine.

Warped and ready to go...

Off the loom with ends knotted.

Washed, lightly fulled and steamed, ready for the scissors. I'm trying to summon the courage for that.

Next up is trying to weave with two heddles, the warp is ready to go on the loom - maybe tomorrow.